Sneaking Vegetables Into Your Child's Food

Are You For or Against Sneaking Veggies Into Children's Food?

Do kids need to know every ingredient in a dish? This is a hot topic among parents so we asked two well-respected women in the kiddie food field to chime in! Children's cookbook author and mother of three, Jessica Seinfeld has made a name for herself by adding veggie purees to recipes in her books, Deceptively Delicious and Double Delicious. She said, "If I'm using an egg, if I'm using flour, what's the big deal about putting sweet potato in the waffle?"

Kiddie chef Catherine McCord, founder of Weelicious and mother of two believes that tots should not only know what's in their food, but be involved in its preparation. She said, "The most exciting thing about becoming a good eater is learning about where foods come from — their tastes, textures, appearances, and smells." To sneak or not to sneak, where do you stand on this edible issue?

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4 years

Where's the conversation about it being okay for husbands? ;-) And yes, I do both for both and include my LO as much as possible. Sometimes, just cooking a veggie a different way than they're used to will help them readjust.

4 years

I would rather tell my child what is in it so he knows that he can enjoy vegtables. I like to be creative in the way that I serve them so he doesn't find them boring. We keep food exciting and interesting by finding different ways to eat our veggies.

4 years

This topic is always amazing to me. My daughter is not picky at all. She's never consumed the run of the mill "typical" toddler foods like mac and cheese, french fries or chicken nuggets at three. She loves helping me in the kitchen by her choice. She enjoys going through the produce section at Whole Foods picking up her favorite fruits and veggies and helping me prepare them.

4 years

I don't like the idea of sneaking anything past my kids. Some day in the future, they will find out how you really got them to eat their veggies, and one of the lessons they will take away from knowing you hid spinach in their Mac n Cheese is that being sneaky is OK if it yields positive results. The way to raise honest children is to raise them honestly. Being a parent is not easy and while I'm all for ways to make my life less complicated, I'm not taking shortcuts at my kids' expense. You want simplicity when it comes to feeding your family at mealtime, don't have a kid, get a pet.

4 years

Most of those recipes for "sneaking in" vegetables only allow for putting in a very small serving of vegetables- for example 1/2 cup of veggies for 4 people, or 1/4 serving per person. While I don't necessary think there's anything wrong with it, I just don't see how a kid whose only veggies are in "disguised" form would end up eating enough vegetables. In order to accumulate any substantial produce they would still need to eat veggies the normal way.

I'd only do it after I've unsuccessfully tried introducing it several times.

4 years

I agree with amber. I don't hide anything in food, they won't learn what they like and don't like that way. They know which vegetables are in what and how they like them. Otherwise when they're out on their own they're not making healthy decisions, they're choosing the stuff you hid veggies in but without the hidden benefits.
That and I'm so tired of seeing Jerry Seinfeld's wife as the example of the hidden vegetable idea. She ripped off the whole concept and flat out plagiarized a lot of her recipes in her book. Stop giving her credit.

Where's the middle ground option? You can be completely up front about what is "hiding" in the food and still have it in there.
You can try to get them to like a food in its natural state, but even adults do fancy things to veggies to make them more palatable. There's nothing wrong with that!

I don't think there's anything wrong with slipping fruits or veggies into something they are eating anyway to give them extra nutrients BUT I don't think sneaking veggies in LIEU of having them actually learn why the 5 food groups are good for you and actually making them ingest regular fruits and veggies. if you do nothing but trick them they will think mashed potatoes are great for you and there's no need to ever eat cauliflower in their lives and that is not benefitting them.

4 years

I'm all for having open and honest conversations with kids about food and what they should and shouldn't be eating, but there's nothing wrong with slipping some fruit or veggies into their foods that they love and eat anyways! Why wouldn't I do that to help ensure that my kids are getting lots of what they need and love? I don't normally discuss everything that's in my spaghetti sauce, they just eat it because they like it. So this time I made it I threw some extra veggies and veggies I may not have before into it!